The 2009 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the highest literature award granted for writing in Spanish was grabbed by Mexican writer Jose Emilio Pacheco.

The award is presented annually by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to honor the lifetime achievement of a Spanish language writer.

While talking to reporters, president of the panel Joe Antonio Pascual said, “Pacheco is an extraordinary poet of the quotidian life, for his capacity of creating a world of his own and for the ironic detachment from the reality seen in his works and to define Pacheco was to define a whole language.”

The 70-year-old Pacheco is a poet, a translator, an essayist and also a short story writer. He was considered as the best Mexican writer of the 20th Century. Some of his famous works are “El viento distante y otros relatos,” “El reposo del fuego,” “El principio del placer,” and “Batallas en el desierto.”

He also taught in various universities in the United States, Canada and Britain. He has translated many books like Tennessee Williams” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Oscar Wilde’s “De Profundis.”

The Cervantes Prize, which amounts to 188,000 U. S. dollars, was created by the Spanish Ministry of Culture in 1975. The award has so far been awarded to 18 Spanish writers and 17 Latin American writers.